This invention deals generally with animal beds and more specifically with a preformed farm animal mattress molded into a pad to cover the floor of a stall.
It is well understood that cows prefer to lie down after eating, and modern dairy barns which have concrete floors tend to make it uncomfortable for cows to do so. There have been many approaches to make the cows more comfortable, the simplest of which is to spread loose cushioning material, such as straw, on the floors of the stalls. Such loose material is, however, a significant problem because it is easily displaced by the cow's movements. That leads to the loose material not only being moved from the location where the cow will lie upon it, but also spreading it around the rest of the barn from where it must be collected and disposed of.
Several proposed solutions to this problem have been patented. U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,195 by Young discloses a mattress which resembles the classic air mattress with multiple separate parallel tubes formed from fabric, with the tubes filled with shredded rubber from vehicle tires and with a fabric blanket covering the mattress. The top blanket has one end attached to the stall's brisket board, and the other end attached to the stall's keeper board. U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,917 by Dodson et al describes an animal mattress of very similar structure to that of Young, except the tubes are constructed of double woven fabric and the web between the tubes is single woven.
The problem with such mattresses is that, because they are filled with loose material, any puncture of the mattress leads to loss of the loose material from the mattress, and dispersal of the loose material throughout the barn.
It would be very beneficial to have an animal pad which did not include loose material, and which would still be resilient enough to afford the desirable comfort for cows.